Keep Your Face on and Check-in to the Future

June 21, 2018

Identity validation is a crucial capability across the travel journey. Whether it’s at check-in, when you drop your bags or at the gate, there are often multiple ID checkpoints. With the continuous cycle of testing and prototype deployment in travel, your face could very well be your boarding pass on your next flight or perhaps the one after. In this article, explore your check-in of the future with UNIGLOBE experts.

“Biometrics, such as fingerprints, are now commonplace security tools. And facial recognition software is already deployed across the world to match transiting passengers with databases of known individuals. However, in its current use for security, facial recognition technology has no active impact on the traveler experience,” says a UNIGLOBE expert.

“While we all want to be safe while traveling, it would be nice to benefit from surveillance culture in other ways. Introducing it to the traveller experience allows for greater benefit beyond security. Though, just like with biometrics collected at immigration stations, the protection of data continues to be essential,” adds the expert.

Using facial recognition at an airport check-in kiosk can potentially save time that would otherwise be spent entering a record ID or destination information. Facial recognition can also be useful at other points in travel, such as when a passenger is boarding a plane or checking into a hotel.

In order to increase accuracy, other biometric identifiers are in use or under experimentation: for example, a traveler’s fingerprints, voice patterns, iris patterns, gait, and ear shape, among others.

Future authentication systems are likely to analyze multiple biometric factors to help optimize security and convenience for businesses and travelers alike. Every person has a unique set of biometric identifiers which, taken together, are virtually impossible to spoof.